The Awareness Center closed. We operated from April 30, 1999 - April 30, 2014. This site is being provided for educational & historical purposes.
We were the international Jewish Coalition Against Sexual Abuse/Assault (JCASA); and were dedicated to ending sexual violence in Jewish communities globally. We did our best to operate as the make a wish foundation for Jewish survivors of sex crimes. In the past we offered a clearinghouse of information, resources, support and advocacy.

Tuesday, September 21, 1999

Simcha Adler, plea-bargained charges of sodomy, sexual abuse and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child down to attempted sodomy, court records show. His punishment: five years' probation and psychological counseling. Adler was arrested on June 22, 1992, and released on $2,000 bail, then plea-bargained his way to freedom on Aug. 12 - less than two months later. "Ohel should have screamed murder, but it didn't".

Now-retired sex-crimes Detective Sal Catafumo recently told The Post that his 1984 investigation of a bogus Borough Park rabbi who had reportedly molested "hundreds" of children - including some Ohel orphans - while working as a child counselor got nowhere when cops tried to question the agency. The rabbi was indicted, but he fled to Israel.

He was 11, face down in bed at an upstate summer camp for Jewish orphans, when his partially clad counselor mounted him and threatened to kill him if he screamed.

"I was telling him to stop because it really hurt," said Michael, now 19.

For nearly two months, between games, outdoor activities and Orthodox religious observances, Michael would return to the horror of his cottage and forced sex with the 24-year-old man, he recalled.

Michael said he saw the same counselor sexually abuse his roommate and best friend, Robert, also 11 at the time.

Robert remembers vague abuse, but not specific acts.

Along with Michael, he claims the attacks continued at the Ohel Children's Home and Family Service Group Home in Borough Park, Brooklyn.

Michael and Robert say their complaints to other staffers were ignored for a year, until a worker caught the counselor straddling Michael.

Police were called and Michael remembers telling sex-crimes investigators in June 1992 that he wanted "justice."

The two boys hid the scars of the abuse for nine years. And then, last month, they discovered what had happened to their attacker:

He walked.

Simcha Adler, now 33, plea-bargained charges of sodomy, sexual abuse and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child down to attempted sodomy, court records show.

His punishment: five years' probation and psychological counseling.

"It's a crime that he could walk away ... and have a normal life," said Michael, now a mailroom worker in Midtown. "This man ruined my life."

Robert vaguely remembers Ohel workers telling him that Adler had been given probation.

"I was [angry], but I couldn't do anything - I wasn't smart enough to do anything," said Robert, now a City College freshman who wants to be an optometrist.

"He should be in jail for the rest of his life," said Robert, who was placed in Ohel because he was sexually abused by his mother.

Michael and Robert have contacted lawyers to find out if they can properly punish Adler. They also want to know if Ohel - their legal guardian - can be held accountable for failing to vigorously nail the pedophile to a prison cell wall.

Although the statute of limitations for suing is three years, the countdown didn't begin until they turned 18.

Adler was arrested on June 22, 1992, and released on $2,000 bail, then plea-bargained his way to freedom on Aug. 12 - less than two months later.

Ohel should have screamed murder, but it didn't.

Ohel fired Adler in May 1992, after two years of employment, but agency officials wouldn't say whether his termination stemmed from the sexual abuse.

"I could feel him coming before he even got in to my room," Robert said. "I knew what was going on, and I would fall asleep - I guess I was in shock ... Then I would wake up again and realize he was still on top of me."

Adler also was charged with fondling Michael in the shower.

"The counselors would take the kids to the showers and they [the kids] would bathe in their shorts," Michael recalled. "He [Adler] always made me take my shorts off.

"I couldn't sleep at night because I didn't know when he would walk into my room."

Michael and Robert angrily charge Ohel swept the abuse "under the rug" to avoid a legal battle that might ruin its reputation.

A former Ohel employee told The Post the boys' allegations were not taken seriously or investigated by Ohel because Michael was thought to be a "liar."

Ohel spokesman Gerald McKelvey would not respond to the ex-employee's comments. "Because of confidentiality concerns, Ohel cannot comment directly on previous or former clients," he said.

But Ohel has a history of turning a blind eye to sexual abuse.

Now-retired sex-crimes Detective Sal Catafumo recently told The Post that his 1984 investigation of a bogus Borough Park rabbi who had reportedly molested "hundreds" of children - including some Ohel orphans - while working as a child counselor got nowhere when cops tried to question the agency.

"They weren't cooperating," Catafumo said. "Kids ... had complained to Ohel and it was swept under the rug ... [and] never reported ..."

McKelvey and Ohel CEO David Mandel deny that the agency ignored kids' complaints about both Adler and the fake rabbi.

McKelvey dismissed Catafumo's claims as "absolutely false," and said Ohel "cooperated fully with authorities in the matter and was deeply involved in the treatment of the victims in this case."

In general, said Mandel, "any allegations made by anyone are taken very seriously and are investigated."

The psychological trauma of the year long series of attacks is apparent in both Michael and Robert, who still live in Ohel housing because they don't have money, parents or any place to go.

Robert said he's never dated a girl because he wanted to focus on school. He spent the past summer watching TV and playing video games.

Asked if the sexual attacks might have something to do with his fear of dating, he said, "I don't know - I never thought about it like that."

Robert takes a battery of prescription drugs to deal with his attention-deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) and a mood disorder.

Michael admitted he began seducing other orphaned boys at 14. A heterosexual, he says he is aroused by rape scenes. Medical records show he also suffers from ADHD and mood disorders.

The owner of a Borough Park building where Adler, until recently, had been living told The Post that the former counselor - who married in December and moved to Jerusalem - admitted to her several years ago that he was a pedophile.

She said his confession came after Ohel officials knocked on her door and told her to keep an eye on her children.

"He [Adler] told me he was sexually abused [as a child]," said the woman, who requested anonymity.

Adler was sent to Ohel at age 3 after his mother died, said his foster mother, Barbara Ackerman, who added that he underwent extensive therapy following his arrest.

"Once it was brought to our attention, we watched him," she said. "He dealt with it and he handled it ... He is doing well."

GRAPHIC: LIVES 'RUINED': Michael and Robert, their faces obscured, tell The Post's Douglas Montero of their ordeal at the hands of a counselor with Brooklyn's Ohel Children's Home eight years ago, when they were 11. Sam Costanza

Douglas Montero's piece on sex-abuse allegations against a counselor at Ohel Children's Home does not reflect the fact that Ohel gave him two interviews and provided him with extensive information ("Victims Learn Kid-Sex Fiend Served No Time," Sept. 21).

Ohel reported to the Administration for Children's Services immediately after the accusations were made eight years ago. ACS investigated and determined the accusations unfounded. Far from "turning a blind eye to sexual abuse," Ohel fully and willingly cooperates with all authorities ininvestigations of any kind. Whenever any allegation is made concerning the safety or well-being of a child or adult in Ohel's care, we immediately investigate. If the child in question has been placed in our care by the ACS, we immediately notify ACS and the Department of Social Services, which then conduct their own independent investigations.

Since its founding in 1969,Ohel has successfully treated thousands of children and families, many of whom are victims of sexual abuse. Within the Jewish community, and throughout our city, Ohel is known as a reliable organization that responds professionally to the most difficult situations involving domestic and child abuse and families in crisis, including people with mental illness or other severe disabilities.

It is most unfortunate that Mr. Montero - who was given the opportunity to visit Ohel and learn first-hand about our 600 employees and 650 volunteers who provide vital services to 1,800 people every day - chose to create the inaccurate and false impression that Ohel doesn't respond to victims of abuse. Our entire mission and our proud record of compassion, care and concern prove the opposite. David Mandel, Chief Executive Officer Ohel Children's Homeand Family Services, Brooklyn

National Sex Offender Registry (03/03/2011)

Domiciled

Anyone who uses this information to injure, harass, or commit a criminal act against any person may be subject to criminal prosecution.

Sunday, September 12, 1999

MICHAEL vividly remembers the knife pressed against his throat. He was 11, face down in bed at an upstate summer camp for Jewish orphans, when his partially clad counselor mounted him and threatened to kill him if he screamed.

"I was telling him to stop because it really hurt," said Michael, now 19. For nearly two months, between games, outdoor activities and Orthodox religious observances, Michael would return to the horror of his cottage and forced sex with the 24-year-old man, he recalled.

Michael said he saw the same counselor sexually abuse his roommate and best friend, Robert, also 11 at the time. Robert remembers vague abuse, but not specific acts.

Michael and Robert say their complaints to other staffers were ignored for a year, until a worker caught the counselor straddling Michael.

Police were called and Michael remembers telling sex-crimes investigators in June 1992 that he wanted "justice."

The two boys hid the scars of the abuse for nine years. And then, last month, they discovered what had happened to their attacker: He walked.

Simcha Adler, now 33, plea-bargained charges of sodomy, sexual abuse and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child down to attempted sodomy, court records show.

His punishment: five years' probation and psychological counseling.

"It's a crime that he could walk away... and have a normal life," said Michael, now a mailroom worker in Midtown. "This man ruined my life."

Robert vaguely remembers Ohel workers telling him that Adler had been given probation.

"I was [angry], but I couldn't do anything - I wasn't smart enough to do anything," said Robert, now a City College freshman who wants to be an optometrist.

"He should be in jail for the rest of his life," said Robert, who was placed in Ohel because he was sexually abused by his mother.

Michael and Robert have contacted lawyers to find out if they can properly punish Adler. They also want to know if Ohel - their legal guardian - can be held accountable for failing to vigorously nail the pedophile to a prison cell wall.

Although the statute of limitations for suing is three years, the countdown didn't begin until they turned 18.

Adler was arrested on June 22, 1992, and released on $2,000 bail, then plea-bargained his way to freedom on Aug. 12 - less than two months later.

Ohel should have screamed murder, but it didn't.

Ohel fired Adler in May 1992, after two years of employment, but agency officials wouldn't say whether his termination stemmed from the sexual abuse. Adler was charged with entering Robert's room and sexually molesting him.

"I could feel him coming before he even got in to my room," Robert said. "I knew what was going on, and I would fall asleep - I guess I was in shock ... Then I would wake up again and realize he was still on top of me."

Adler also was charged with fondling Michael in the shower.

"The counselors would take the kids to the showers and they [the kids] would bathe in their shorts," Michael recalled. "He [Adler] always made me take my shorts off.

"I couldn't sleep at night because I didn't know when he would walk into my room."

Michael and Robert angrily charge Ohel swept the abuse "under the rug" to avoid a legal battle that might ruin its reputation.

A former Ohel employee told The Post the boys' allegations were not taken seriously or investigated by Ohel because Michael was thought to be a "liar."

Ohel spokesman Gerald McKelvey would not respond to the ex-employee's comments. "Because of confidentiality concerns, Ohel cannot comment directly on previous or former clients," he said.

But Ohel has a history of turning a blind eye to sexual abuse.

Now-retired sex-crimes Detective Sal Catafumo recently told The Post that his 1984 investigation of a bogus Borough Park rabbi who had reportedly molested "hundreds" of children - including some Ohel orphans - while working as a child counselor got nowhere when cops tried to question the agency.

"They weren't cooperating," Catafumo said. "Kids... had complained to Ohel and it was swept under the rug ... [and] never reported ..."

The rabbi was indicted, but he fled to Israel.

David Mandel, CEO - Ohel

McKelvey and Ohel CEO David Mandel deny that the agency ignored kids' complaints about both Adler and the fake rabbi.

McKelvey dismissed Catafumo's claims as "absolutely false," and said Ohel "cooperated fully with authorities in the matter and was deeply involved in the treatment of the victims in this case."

The psychological trauma of the yearlong series of attacks is apparent in both Michael and Robert, who still live in Ohel housing because they don't have money, parents or any place to go.

Robert said he's never dated a girl because he wanted to focus on school. He spent the past summer watching TV and playing video games.

Asked if the sexual attacks might have something to do with his fear of dating, he said, "I don't know - I never thought about it like that."

Robert takes a battery of prescription drugs to deal with his attention-deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) and a mood disorder.

Michael admitted he began seducing other orphaned boys at 14. A heterosexual, he says he is aroused by rape scenes. Medical records show he also suffers from ADHD and mood disorders.

The owner of a Borough Park building where Adler, until recently, had been living told The Post that the former counselor - who married in December and moved to Jerusalem - admitted to her several years ago that he was a pedophile.

She said his confession came after Ohel officials knocked on her door and told her to keep an eye on her children.

"He [Adler] told me he was sexually abused [as a child]," said the woman, who requested anonymity.

Adler was sent to Ohel at age 3 after his mother died, said his foster mother, Barbara Ackerman, who added that he underwent extensive therapy following his arrest.

"Once it was brought to our attention, we watched him," she said. "He dealt with it and he handled it ... He is doing well."

Wednesday, September 01, 1999

Though based at the University of Maryland, this story, and the issues it raises, have national implications.

LES AND NORA BAKER aren’t Jewish, but say the story of how their daughter got
sucked into a controversial cult operating on the University of Maryland
College Park campus should resonate deeply with Jewish parents.

Jewish students purportedly swell the ranks of cults disproportionate to
their representation in the overall population.

As students head back to school this fall, Les Baker believes “parents, be
they Jewish parents or whatever, should address the subject of dangerous
groups with their children with the same seriousness and importance that they
would talk about sex, drugs, or alcohol.”

A recent university department of resident life survey of 366 students found
that 35 percent of students had been asked to join a group they thought to be
a cult. Twenty-one percent of students knew a peer who had joined an
organization they believed to be a cult.

The new edition of KAPLAN/Newsweek’s How to Get into College guide includes
a section on how “colleges have become prime
recruiting grounds for the nation’s more than 3,000 cults, which seem to
promise security and support to vulnerable students, many away from home and
family for the first time.”

Les Baker says he and his wife “knew nothing about destructive groups” or
that their daughter, “Ellen” (the couple has requested that their daughter’s
real name not be used), was involved in a controversial sect until “we woke
up one Sunday morning, and we looked at The Washington Post, and there was an
expose on the group with a picture. ... And so, we said, ‘Oh my God.’ ”

Explaining that the Bethesda couple had been uneasy about their daughter,
“because we had seen some dramatic changes in her,” Baker says, “We knew
about this group that she was very interested in. And when she would come to
visit, every 10 minutes that she would be at home, the phone would ring and
there would be another group member talking with her. So we thought that was
unusual, but we couldn’t put our finger on it.”

When the Bakers learned that their daughter was preparing to go to Iran as a
missionary and risk martyrdom in the fundamentalist Islamic country, they
arranged a non-coercive exit-counseling during a ski trip. Former group
members came to their cabin to share their findings about the group’s
finances and the high lifestyle and earnings of the group’s leader. “She was
free to leave at any time,” Baker says. “The intervention was certainly the
most gut-wrenching event in our family life. She made the decision to leave
the group.” The counseling was successful and Ellen is today working and
living in the local area.

Then the details of their daughter’s recruitment unfolded. At follow-up
counseling in support groups, the Bakers heard similar stories from other
parents with children at Maryland state universities and learned that other
complaints to university officials had gone ignored, Baker says. The couple
became angry.

Ellen had been recruited by her college dormitory resident assistant, or
adviser, when she sought advice on a personal problem during the fall of her
sophomore year in 1994. Instead of referring their daughter to a university
health system counselor or another bona fide campus employee, the RA brought
in an outside group member and recruited Ellen into the Upside Down Club, a
registered student group.

But Ellen had no idea at the time that Upside Down was a part of the
International Churches of Christ, a manipulative, “destructive group,”
according to Mark Powers, executive director of Jews for Judaism, the
Baltimore-based, anti-missionary and anti-cult organization.

The ICOC has
been banned from recruiting on a number of private university campuses,
according to the Christian Science Monitor. (The ICOC is not related to the
mainstream Christian, United Church of Christ.)

Ellen’s RA was still serving in her paraprofessional position despite
complaints the previous year to both the assistant director of university
resident life and the vice president of student affairs about the RA’s
proselytizing. Two articles had appeared in the Diamondback student
newspaper, outlining cult recruitment tactics and complaints against the RA.

The RA, in fact, had been recruited by her own resident assistant.

While in the group for little more than a year, Ellen handed her entire
$2,322 savings to the group and her grades plummeted, says Baker. She was
submitting a daily and weekly schedule of virtually all of her activities to
her RA — her “discipler”— for approval. She was encouraged to sleep less. And
she began feeding group recruiters on her campus meal card. The RA had acted
as a scribe during a protracted “sin confession” and passed the document on
to group leaders. The RA also organized Ellen’s door-to-door dorm recruiting,
which is “unlawful,” according to university policy.

The RA, in an interview with the Christian Science Monitor, said it was
natural for her to discuss her personal interests with fellow dorm residents
and that she never unduly pressured students to join in events. A
high-ranking church official also said the group deplores deception.

The Bakers have taken their complaints up the long chain of command at the
University System of Maryland. Officials have repeatedly refused to
investigate his complaints, says Baker, leafing through documents
meticulously organized in an alphabetized, thick binder.

University officials note that students and staff have First-Amendment rights
to affiliate and participate in any group and may not be denied positions
because of any membership.

“The university has a very strongly worded policy
relating to the separation of the resident adviser’s personal and
professional lives,” says Warren E. Kelley, executive assistant to University
of Maryland, College Park, vice president of student affairs.

Explaining why the university does not ban proselytizing outright, Kelley
says, “Trying to tell a student that we are going to prohibit their ability
to talk about a topic of personal interest to them just is not enforceable,
or practical or desirable. The individual RA also has protections of free
speech.”

The university’s orientation program also warns students about certain sect
behaviors without naming specific groups. A brochure, Friends Are Everywhere,
gives students information on “making judgments about groups” and is handed
out at orientation and available at other locations on campus. Another
brochure, Could this happen to you? A Guide to Making Safe Judgments About
Groups, is distributed on campus through the campus ministries. RAs also
receive training on dangerous groups.

“What the university has done with resident assistants now is excellent,”
agrees Les Baker. But, he says, when he and his wife complained, they were
told that not only was the group membership “a good experience for our
daughter, but that they were constitutionally constrained from doing ...
anything regarding it.”

One longtime College Park faculty member, mathematics professor Denny
Gulick, is sympathetic with the Bakers’ plight and has carried on his own
campaign to sensitize university officials about cult recruitment. Long
before Ellen was approached, Gulick and another student had notified leading
campus administrators about cults’ targeting of resident assistant jobs for
recruiting access to students and about the specific RA in question.

Gulick became involved in cult-awareness efforts in the mid-1980s when a
controversial sect, which he declines to name publicly, moved into his
neighborhood within walking distance of the campus. Friends and acquaintances
warned him that his three young children could be vulnerable.

He began researching cults. “One thing led to another and the more I new, the
angrier I got. I met people who had lost family members to destructive
groups. I could see the pathos. I could see the disorientation of ex-members.
I could see the lies, the coercion, the deception by cult people,” he says.

“So I went to the university and I said, ‘Oh my God, there are cults
proselytizing on campus’ — sort of like the cockroaches in your kitchen. And
I thought they were going to say, ‘Get them out!’ When in fact, they
pretended that there was no such thing,” he recalls. “I had proof that they
were there and that they had been there. So, it didn’t make any sense. So I
said, somebody is covering up; there’s a crisis here.”

Over time, Gulick’s approach has shifted. “Initially, I thought, ‘Get them
out! Just get the lawyers and get them out.’ And then I realized it’s not so
simple and that isn’t the right kind of approach.

“The right kind of approach,” continues Gulick, “is to educate people. If
they want to join, so they should be able to join. If you tell them, here’s a
bridge, be careful, then you’ve done your job.”

Gulick objects to “apologists” who use the euphemism “new religious
movements” or “minority religions” to talk about destructive groups. Such
groups oppose the term cult, saying it has a pejorative connotation. “The
whole flock of those representing destructive groups say that a cult is a
‘new religious movement.’ And that’s as phony as the day is long,” says
Gulick.

“One assistant dean told me, ‘One man’s cult is another person’s Rotary
Club.’ Well, I’m not a Rotarian, but I took great umbrage at that. A
destructive group to my way of thinking is a group that has a hidden agenda
of controlling the minds and lives of its members,” Gulick says.

Gulick believes that during any given semester on the College Park campus,
there are between 50 to 100 students involved in destructive groups.

He now gives the College Park campus “a lot of credit for some new
procedures,” but says, “There still is some room for increased legitimate
[cult-awareness] activity on our campus. Still, very few staff know anything
about destructive groups. The mental health professionals, the counselors,
the campus police force, the financial people who give student loans” need to
be better informed.

Although the Bakers never sued College Park campus officials or the
university system, they hired attorney David J. Bardin of the Arent Fox law
firm in Washington, D.C. to prepare a “demand letter” that accused the
university of misconduct and “gross negligence” for allowing the RA to stay
in her paraprofessional, supervisory position despite the record of
harassment complaints. The Bakers asked for about $7,000 compensation for
Ellen’s squandered savings and tuition during the time she was a group
member. The couple also wanted their daughter to be given special
consideration for admittance to a selective graduate school program.

Bardin also argued that labor laws and court precedent prohibiting
supervisors and employees from soliciting in the workplace and creating a
hostile work environment should apply in this case.

The university rejected the Bakers’ requests. The university’s attorney,
Diane Krejsa, wrote that “presumably, in devoting her energies and time to
the church rather than her studies, [Ellen] received certain benefits in the
form of spiritual nourishment, a meaningful life philosophy and/or individual
and communal companionship.”

Krejsa also argued that the institution has no legal obligation to stand in
loco parentis [in the place of a parent] or oversee a student’s “choice of
activities, including religion.”

Baker is particularly disturbed by the “front” names groups use on campus:
“The group’s point is that they are young students and they don’t want to be
called [a formal organizational name]. They want to be called something a
little more hip. But how can you keep up with names that change frequently?
You can’t.”

Baker says students and parents must be made aware of “smooth” recruitment
tactics. Groups use the ploy of world harmony-music concerts, peace-run
marathons or volley ball games on the quad to lure in unsuspecting students.
Fake dates are set up where good-looking students ask out less-attractive
peers and heap on the flattery.

Students need to learn how to scrutinize whether praise and compliments seem
inappropriately excessive, says Baker.

“It’s only a matter of time before we have another Heaven’s Gate or
Jonestown. We have to recognize that this is an issue that we have to treat
seriously. It’s not a religious issue,” Baker says. “It’s an issue of how we
as parents help educate our children to make good decisions and be sensitive
about the groups they choose or choose not to
join.”

Subscribe to The Awareness Center's Newsletter

Translate

Survivors ARE Heroes!

The Awareness Center believes ALL survivors of sex crimes should be given yellow ribbons to wear proudly.

Survivors of sexual violence (as adults and/or as a child) are just as deserving of a yellow ribbon as the men and women of our armed forces, who have been held captive as hostages or prisoners of war.

Survivors of sexual violence have been forced to learn how to survive, being held captive not by foreigners, but mostly by their own family members, teachers, camp counselors, coaches babysitters, rabbis, cantors or other trusted authority figures.

For these reasons ALL survivors of sexual violence should be seen as heroes!